Side Dish Saturdays: Curried Sweet Potatoes and Chickpeas

Fast and easy curried sweet potatoes with chickpeas can serve as a side dish or a main vegetarian entrée. Warmly spiced with a hint of sweetness and a pop of heat this comes together in no time at all thanks to the use of curry powder!

To start off boiled sweet potatoes are pan-fried with onions until they take on a lovely shade of golden brown. The spices and chickpeas are added in and as they cook the potatoes are mashed down, as little or as much as you want. You can completely mash them the way I did or leave them chunkier if you like.

For a main dish serve over rice or greens.

This is my entry for Side Dish Saturdays, a weekly event I started to bring more attention to side dishes and give them the respect and love they deserve.

I would love it if you linked up your side dishes! I only have two guidelines for linking to the event.

Your link must be a side dish; no soups or recipes with meat/poultry. Old posts are ok but. . .

The post must have a link back to my site. All other links will be deleted; every link will be checked.

The linky will be open until Tuesday at midnight eastern time. If you get here late – no worries – just link up next week.

Add potatoes, 2 teaspoons salt and enough cold water to cover in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil then simmer until potatoes are just tender. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain the potatoes.

Meanwhile cook the onions in a few tablespoons oil over medium-low heat until they start to turn brown. Push the onions to the side, add butter and melt then add potatoes. Cook until the potatoes begin to turn golden, stirring every few minutes and incorporating the onion into the mixture, total cooking time 8-10 minutes. Add the curry powder and cayenne, stir in and cook another minute.

Add the chickpeas and 1/2 cup reserved cooking water; cook, mashing the potatoes with a spoon as little or as much as you like, until heated through, about 3 minutes. Add more cooking water, if needed. Taste and season with salt if needed.

For the sauce mix the yogurt, cilantro and lime juice in a small bowl. Serve with a dollop of sauce over top and sliced jalapenos, if desired.